During the manufacture of microelectronic devices photoresists are employed to transfer images to a microelectronics substrate to create the desired circuit layer. Many of the microelectronic devices are metallized with aluminum. Also, the microelectronics substrate may employ metals such as titanium, titanium nitride, tungsten and the like as adhesion promoters and diffusion barriers.
Many alkaline microelectronic stripping and cleaning compositions have been proposed for the removal of cross-linked and hardened photoresists and other residues, such as post etch residues, from such microelectronic substrates. However, one problem with such stripping and cleaning composition is the possibility of metal corrosion occurring as a result of the use of such cleaning compositions. Such corrosion results in whiskers, pitting, notching of metal lines, due at least in part to the reaction of the metals in the device substrates with the alkaline strippers employed. One such alkaline microelectronic stripping and cleaning composition is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,745. While the stripping and cleaning compositions of that patent have been commercially employed to strip hardened and cross-linked photoresist from substrates, it has been discovered that attempts to clean microelectronic substrates having aluminum metallization and containing residues of metals from layers such as layers of titanium, titanium nitride, tungsten and the like, with the cleaning composition of this patent has resulted in significant aluminum corrosion or insufficient cleaning of the metal residues. Therefore, there is a limitation on the use of the cleaning compositions of that patent in the cleaning of vias that punch-through underlying layers of titanium, titanium nitride, tungsten and the like.
There is therefore a need for microelectronic stripping and cleaning compositions that can effectively remove such metal residues and do so without any significant aluminum corrosion resulting from the stripping and cleaning composition. There is also a need for stripping and cleaning compositions that, in addition to cleaning these metal residues, will also effectively clean post-ash residues from other vias and from metal lines, as well as cleaning unashed photoresist residue from the substrate.